A Date With Prince Ali
by cornholio4
Summary: Before Marinette goes to see Knives Out, she has Prince Ali turn up and reveal he is her secret admirer. This ends up unwittingly revealing the lies of Lila Rossi. Lila bashing and slight salt for Adrien and the Class.
1. Chapter 1

Marinette Dupain-Cheng just sighed when class was just finishing and Lila began spinning off her latest tale about some celebrities that she had supposedly met, really it was quite frustrating how all suckered in they were. Nino told everyone about how his parents were taking his little brother Chris to an appointment so they could have their own party there with him as a DJ.

Lila of course said she would love to come over when she has time and has another story she has been waiting for the right moment to tell them. This made Marinette groaned and Marinette almost missed it when Nino asked if she can expect to find her there.

"Oh no sorry Nino, I already have plans..." Marinette told him and then saw disappointed glances from most of the classmates as this was another occasion she had missed out with Lila involved. "Look sorry but I already have plans; I'm going to go see Knives Out tonight." Marinette explained and everyone looked at her incredulously as everything they knew about the movie didn't seem like it would be one Marinette would see.

Then of course Lila was putting up a facade of how disappointed she was that Marinette would not be coming. "Really girl, if you don't want to come because Lila is coming then you can at least be honest and tell us... No need to make up a story on the spot..." Alya chided her and Marinette sighed at her words along with the disapproval that came from Adrien.

It wasn't an excuse and she really did plan to go see the movie that afternoon, she had been looking forward to it for some time.

What her classmates didn't know was that she was actually a big fan of mystery stories, from her childhood of watching mystery movies with her parents (she watched a lot of the TV show about Hercule Poirot), watching Scooby Doo as well as reading the Agatha Christie books. She actually loved watching the mysteries build up with all the clues and red herrings built up and put together in the ending.

In fact when she was accused of stealing by Chloe she was putting her deductive skills to rest and she also got to use them when she began to suspect that Adrien's father was Hawk Moth. She rarely got to use the skills she developed from all the mysteries stories she had seen and read.

True the deductive skills failed to convince her classmates that Lila was lying but that was neither here nor there.

Later she got home and noticed a parcel for her and she opened it to see a necklace looking like it came from the kingdom of Achu and guessed it must have come from her secret admirer again. She had been getting presents and letters in the mail for a small while from a secret admirer saying they had only just gotten the courage to send these tokens of their feelings towards her.

She began wondering who it could be with her first hope being that it was from Adrien but soon her feelings began dying out. It had to do with his words about Lila's lying not hurting anyone.

What instantly could get her out of a Lila related sour mood was wondering who could be her secret admirer; she had yet to tell Alya about it. Mostly because she was pretty much dreading whatever scheme Alya could cook up to find out who it could be.

Some of the presents were mostly jewellery and she figured it must be someone well off, one of her first candidates was Luka but looking at the expensive jewellery it may not be there. Unless the Couffaines were secretly wealthy and were being humble about it to the point of living in their small houseboat. Currently her best candidate would be Kagami.

Her parents were gushing about her latest gift from her admirer and were encouraging her to wear it for the movie today. She thought it would be a little much but she decided to do so. She had changed into a detective outfit she had designed and Tikki was asking about where it came from.

She had explained that during the last summer at a birthday party for one of her cousins; it was a murder mystery role play party that she was so excited for and designed everyone's outfit. Her role was as the lead detective's deputy.

She had gotten to the door but then saw someone enter through the door and it was someone in a hooded jacket along with some sort of chaperone bodyguard. The person took his hood down and saw it was Prince Ali of Achu.

"Prince Ali, what a surprise..." Marinette blurted out remembering when she had last saw him as Ladybug. Rose had told everyone about how excited she was to have ice cream with him and some time ago she had been disappointed to tell them that Prince Ali admitted to her in his last message that he liked someone else and was sending her letters before he can finally confess in person.

She felt sorry for Rose and tried to console her along with the other classmates, Lila made a half hearted story that she was asked by Prince Ali himself to keep it secret that she liked some other princess. Of course they had eaten it up.

Rose had said that Prince Ali really spoke fondly of her and said he hadn't had a chance to see her along but she was kind, clumsy and adorable with a passion for fashion.

Marinette knew that Prince Ali was in France related to a charity he was doing and how it would be a busy one, Lila made up a claim that she would try and see if they can get time to get them to see him again. Lucky Lila counted on the fact that it was reported that he would only be in France for 3 days and how unlikely it would be that he would be in Paris to see them.

A part of her thought about directly asking him about Lila but she decided she didn't want to use him like this to settle a grudge against a bully.

"Marinette, hasn't had time to see you directly..." Prince Ali admitted to her with a blush with Marinette feeling like she should be questioning why he was there. "I managed to make enough time in my schedule to come here and see the girl I liked." Prince Ali told her sheepishly and Marinette froze having put the clues together:

The presents having come at the same time when Rose talked to Prince Ali with his message about sending presents to his crush and the description of this crush.

Uh oh...

"I am... flattered your majesty but... Rose likes you and I am sure a girl code or a sis code exists..." Marinette trying to come up with the best excuse she could do. Her parents were no help as they were gushing about it and how Marinette was always a princess to them.

"Rose is a good friend but I can't help it when I saw a pretty girl and what Rose told me about you; how helpful and kind you are. I noticed your designs on your website and I was amazed by your talents. Plus the achievements you have made." Prince Ali told her and Marinette's cheeks began going red. "Are you doing anything tonight?" He asked hopefully and she shook her head.

"Sorry but I already made plans, I want to see this movie at the cinema called Knives Out..." Marinette told him and Prince Ali put out his hand offering to treat her to a movie. Her brain shut down and it only rebooted again when she noticed she was led to his limo.

She smiled awkwardly at Prince Ali as she sat next to him, she then began wondering if she even liked him like that. He was handsome alright but that was not enough for her to fall for someone; she knew Adrien was handsome but didn't care for him when she thought he was a bully friend of Chloe. She only started to fall for him at the umbrella incident.

Maybe she could give Prince Ali a try as he was a nice boy starting charities and being nothing but kind to Rose.

They reached the cinema and Prince Ali helped Marinette out as they entered with his chaperone and his hood disguise back up, they got in line and paid for their tickets. They got to the screening room and Marinette noticed Aurore and Mireille there who recognised Marinette but not her apparent date. They were going as Chris Evans fans and were wierded out when Marinette revealed she was a mystery fan.

They sat down and the ads and trailers played and followed by a message from the movie's director Rian Johnson asking the audience not to spoil the ending to their friends as it was a whodunit mystery. Marinette with a serious look on her face zipped her mouth shut at that which Prince Ali laughed at and she just looked sheepish.

They watched the movie and during the first act Marinette saw how intentionally horrible most of the characters were. while because she hated being scared was the main reason why she hated horror movies another one was because it was hard to like any of the characters in those movies and want to see them survive.

They laughed at scenes in it (especially at Daniel Craig's hilarious accent) while Marinette was analysing any potential clues and feeling tense as it went on. The movie ended and Marinette left with Prince Ali gushing with the others about how good it was but Marinette made a move of asking they be silent about spoilers when they got out of the cinema room.

Marinette took mystery stories very seriously.

They got out of the cinema and Marinette gave him a kiss on the cheek as they went began smiling awkwardly at each other. Then somebody shouted that it was Prince Ali and they just noticed his hood fell down. They quickly got back into the limo and it drove off.

The paparazzi followed them back to the bakery and Prince Ali helped Marinette out and got her into her home as they had taken pictures of them.

* * *

At Nino's party, Nino had told her big story and was going on about how twenty minutes ago Prince Ali phoned her about some paperwork he had just finished at the moment to open an orphanage in her name.

Then Rose screamed out looking at her phone saying Prince Ali was in Paris right now and was seen exiting their local cinema with a date! She was gushing about Prince Ali finding love with her crush but then the classmates began looking at Lila asking about what she had just said despite her attempts to change the subject.

Curse the horrid timing.

Rose's eyes were bulging and told everyone to come and see who it was and everyone was speechless when they saw the photos. Lila looked herself and let her frustration get the better of her and ranted about Marinette on the spot.

**I admit I was using this story as an excuse to gush about Knives Out; an enjoyable movie even if you're like me and your biggest exposure to mystery stories are Scooby Doo episodes and movies.**

**Over a year of Ladybug salt and LIla Salt; different types of stories and using pairings with Felix and Damian Wayne (not a fan of either of those pairings to be honest). Then I realised why not try one that is Marinette X Ali as surprisingly enough there are no stories of that yet.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Decided to write this short aftermath, not much romance and slight spoilers for Knives Out but without context. Plus some slight salt for Adrien.**

Marinette had gotten home and saw that her movie 'date' (she was not certain if she wanted to call it a movie date just yet) with Prince Ali had gone viral in no time so she ignored all messages and remained off her computer. Fortunately she didn't have to worry about any Akumas that day so she could just take a deep breath. Her parents were embarrassing a bit asking the both of them how the date was and waved Prince Ali as he left with his driver with him saying that he hoped they could meet up again.

She told her parents how the movie was like with as little spoilers as possible as she then went back to her room; she deleted the messages on her phone knowing she would have to deal with more drama when she went to school the next day.

Her parents offered to get her a snack and she got some donuts as the movie put her in the mood for one so she could contemplate the holes in them.

She woke up and saw to no surprise of her there were plenty of more messages and emails for her; there were discussions about if she was to be Prince Ali's queen, it was one 'date' for crying out loud!

She ran to school ignoring anyone who recognised her and the crowd forming as she got to the gates and just sighed as she heard the mutterings. She noticed Lila going to class giving her harsh glare to her direction and Lila was being given the cold shoulder by their classmates. Apparently her lies had finally came up to her as she had given the classmates at the party a lie about just messaging Prince Ali the moment the news hit of him exciting the cinema with Marinette.

Lila had exploded at the moment going off on a rant on how stupid Marinette just had to upstage her in retaliations for the threats and lies. Seems that when Lila realised what she had just said, tried to make excuses but she was just kicked out of the party.

She wasn't able to hide the glee from her face happy with this development; she wondered why Lila wasn't Akumatized the previous day then. They had no way of knowing that at the time Gabriel Agreste was busy at an important meeting that would go on for hours.

Marinette had gotten to class and was overwhelmed with apologises and demands for details all at the same time. Though the alienating would still hurt; she was willing to try and fix things with them as she had said. "As for Prince Ali; he came to my door and it seemed that he was giving me secret admirer messages and gifts for the time being." Marinette explained but of course they were not satisfied with that statement.

Pouncing on that Alya was asking why didn't she tell her that she had a secret admirer; "Well we had not been on the best of terms as of late and besides; I was afraid that you would pull a scheme to try and find out who the secret admirer was!" Marinette fired back and Alya was silent as she was unable to refuse her points.

"So Prince Ali just happened to turn up and you two just happened to go out to the movies together at the moment? Is that just an excuse to hide your affair?" Chloe asked rudely as everyone just glared at her but some were wondering if it was more of a coincidence.

"That is what happened: Prince Ali turned up when I was about to go the movies and he turned up so we went together! I told you all that I was going to see Knives Out but you didn't believe me!" Marinette snapped and the class were still disbelieving of her wanting to see the movie. "I like mystery stories okay!" She finished as the classes started.

Lila was a pariah in the class now and her attempts to try and fix things with a smooth talk failed miserably; she tried to say that most of what she said was true but it's just that she had a lying disease about the other stuff and it acted up again at the party. "You think Lila might claim that she has a lying condition that causes her to be sick when she lies?" Marinette whispered to Tikki in her bag and she giggled as she saw the movie as well in Marinette's bag.

Adrien didn't look happy about how the class was now acting towards Lila but no one would listen to him when he tried to say to go easy on her. "Just because Chloe is your childhood friend doesn't mean that you should try helping all the bullies Adrien." Nino had told him and Adrien wasn't happy at that.

Later during lunch Marinette was being messaged by Prince Ali wanting a talk and the girls gave Marinette speech including a giggling Rose who was happy for Marinette despite her crush. Prince Ali had told her that Rose had only just now let him know about the lying classmate that was claiming to be his friend and had explained the situation. Prince Ali was asking how her classmates fell for the false stories but Marinette had jokingly said that she doubts they could tell a prop knife from a real one.

The both of them shared a good laugh at that.


End file.
